Founded | December 12th 1969 Bronx, NY |
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Years active | 1969 to present |
Territory | Hunts Point, Bronx, New York |
The Savage Skulls are a mostly Puerto Rican and African American street gang started in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx during the late 1960s, gaining popularity in the 1970s. [1] The gang declared war on the drug dealers operating in the Hunts Point area in the early 1970s, and was also involved in a number of running battles with rival gangs, including the Seven Immortals, Savage Nomads, and Dirty Dozen.[ citation needed]
The gang was photographed by Jean-Pierre Laffont in 1972 [2] and were the subject of the 1979 documentary film 80 Blocks From Tiffany's. [3] [4] [5] The leader of the gang was Felipe Mercado. [6] Like the Savage Nomads, gang members would appropriate Nazi symbolism to project "how menacing and terrible they were." This included wearing swastikas, wearing Nazi helmets and having positions called " Gestapo" within the gang's ranks. [7]